McKim, Mead & White

McKim, Mead & White was an American architectural firm that came to define architectural practice, urbanism, and the ideals of the American Renaissance in fin de siècle New York. The firm's founding partners Charles Follen McKim (1847–1909), William Rutherford Mead (1846–1928) and Stanford White (1853–1906) were giants in the architecture of their time, and remain important as innovators and leaders in the development of modern architecture worldwide. They formed a school of classically trained, technologically skilled designers who practiced well into the mid-twentieth century.[1] According to Robert A. M. Stern, only Frank Lloyd Wright was more important to the identity and character of modern American architecture.[2]

The principals of the McKim, Mead & White architecture firm: William Rutherford Mead, Charles Follen McKim, and Stanford White (left to right)
Pennsylvania Station in New York City in 1911

The firm's New York City buildings include Manhattan's former Pennsylvania Station, the Brooklyn Museum, and the main campus of Columbia University. Elsewhere in New York State and New England, the firm designed college, library, school and other buildings such as the Boston Public Library and Rhode Island State House. In Washington, D.C., the firm renovated the West and East Wings of the White House, and designed Roosevelt Hall on Fort Lesley J. McNair and the National Museum of American History. Across the United States, the firm designed buildings in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington and Wisconsin. Other examples are in Canada, Cuba and Italy. The scope and breadth of their achievement is astounding, considering that many of the technologies and strategies they employed were nascent or non-existent when they began working in the 1880s.[3]

Early years

Charles McKim was the son of a prominent Quaker abolitionist who grew up in West Orange, New Jersey. He attended Harvard College and went to Paris to attend the École des Beaux-Arts, a leading training ground for Americans. William Rutherford Mead, a cousin of president Rutherford B. Hayes, went to Amherst College and trained with Russell Sturgis in Boston. The two formed a partnership with William Bigelow in New York in 1877.

White was born in New York City, the son of Shakespearean scholar Richard Grant White and Alexina Black Mease (1830–1921). His father was a dandy and Anglophile with no money, but a great many connections in New York's art world, including painter John LaFarge, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and Frederick Law Olmsted.

White had no formal architectural training; he began his career at the age of 18 as the principal assistant to Henry Hobson Richardson, the most important American architect of the day and creator of a style recognized today as "Richardsonian Romanesque". He remained with Richardson for six years, playing a major role in the design of the William Watts Sherman House in Newport, Rhode Island, an important Shingle Style work.

White joined the partnership in 1879, and quickly became known as the artistic leader of the firm. McKim's connections helped secure early commissions, while Mead served as the managing partner. Their work applied the principles of Beaux-Arts architecture, with its classical design traditions and training in drawing and proportion, and the related City Beautiful movement after 1893. The designers quickly found wealthy and influential clients amidst the bustle and economic vigor of metropolitan New York.[4]

Initially the firm distinguished itself with innovative Shingle Style summer houses such as the Victor Newcomb house in Elberon, New Jersey (1880-81) the Isaac Bell house in Newport (1883), Rhode Island, and the Joseph Choate house,"Naumkeag," in Lenox, Massachusetts (1885-88).[5] Their status rose when McKim was asked to design the Boston Public Library in 1887, ensuring a new group of institutional clients following its successful completion in 1895. The firm had begun to use classical sources from Modern French, Renaissance and even Roman buildings as sources of inspiration for daring new work.

In 1877 White and McKim led their partners on a "sketching tour" of New England, visiting many of the key houses of Puritan leaders and early masterpieces of the colonial period. Their work began to incorporate influences from these buildings, contributing to a revival of interest in American art and architecture: The Colonial Revival.[6]

The H.A.C. Taylor house in Newport (1882-86) was the first of their designs to use overt quotations from colonial buildings, but many would follow. A less successful but daring variation of a formal Georgian plan was White's house for Commodore William Edgar, also in Newport (1884-86). Rather than traditional red brick or the pink pressed masonry of the Bell house, White tried a tawny, almost brown color, leaving the building neither fish nor fowl.

The partners added talented designers and associates as the 1890s loomed, with Thomas Hastings, John Carrère, Henry Bacon, Joseph M. Wells on the payroll in their expanding office. With a larger staff each partner could have a "studio" of designers at his disposal, rather like the organization of a modern design firm. This increased their capacity for doing bigger and bigger jobs, such as the design of entire college campuses for Columbia and New York Universities, and a massive entertainment complex at Madison Square Garden. They were entering a new phase of outstanding productivity and achievements.

Flowering and major works

McKim, Mead and White gained prominence as a cultural and artistic force through their construction of Madison Square Garden. White secured the job from the Vanderbilt family, and the other partners brought former clients into the project as investors. The extraordinary building opened its doors in 1890. What had once been a dilapidated arena for horse shows was now a multi-purpose entertainment palace, with a larger arena, a theater, apartments in a Spanish style tower, restaurants, and a roof garden with views both uptown and downtown from 34th Street. White's masterpiece was a testament to his creative imagination, and his taste for the pleasures of city life.[7]

The architects paved the way for many subsequent colleagues by fraternizing with the rich in a number of other settings similar to The Garden, enhancing their social status during the Progressive Era. McKim, Mead and White designed not only the Century Association building (1891), but also many other clubs around Manhattan: the Colony Club, the Metropolitan Club, the Harmonie Club, and the University Club. The latter is certainly the best of its type, standing proudly on Fifth Avenue next to St. Thomas Church (Bertram Goodhue, architect) and near townhouses also designed by the firm. Its magnificent entry hall, library, and dining rooms are a testament to the talents of White and his associates.

Though White's subsequent life was plagued by scandals, and McKim's by depression and the loss of his second wife, the firm continued to produce magnificent and varied work in New York and abroad. [8] They worked for the titans of industry, transportation and banking, designing not only classical buildings (the New York Herald Building, Morgan Library, Villard Houses, and Rhode Island State Capitol), but also planning factory towns (Echota, near Niagara Falls, New York; Roanoke Rapids, Virginia, and Naugatuck, Connecticut),[9] and working on university campuses (the University of Virginia, Harvard, and Columbia). The magnificent Low Library (1897) at Columbia was in many ways a tribute to Thomas Jefferson's at the University of Virginia, where White added an academic building on the other side of the Lawn.

Some of their later, classical country houses also enhanced their reputation with wealthy oligarchs and critics alike. The Frederick Vanderbilt mansion at Hyde Park (1895-98), New York, and the White's "Rosecliff" for Tessie Oelrichs (1898-1902) in Newport were elegant venues for the society chronicled by Edith Wharton and Henry James. Newly wealthy Americans were seeking the right spouses for their sons and daughters, among them idle aristocrats from European families with dwindling financial resources. When called for, the firm could also deliver a house full of continental antiques and works of art, many acquired by Stanford White from dealers abroad. The Clarence McKay house in Roslyn, New York, was probably the most opulent of these flights of fancy. Though many are gone, some now serve new uses, such as "Florham," in Madison, New Jersey, (1897-1900) now the home of Fairleigh Dickinson University.[10]

New York's enormous Penn Station (1906-10) was the firm's crowning achievement, reflecting not only their commitment to new technological advances, but also to architectural history stretching back to Greek and Roman times.[11] McKim designed New York's greatest monument to Progressive era ideals of civic dignity, capitalist power, and democratic government, alas lost to the greed of its owners during the 1960s and replaced by the ironically named Madison Square Garden arena and an underground maze of public spaces. The firm's final contribution to the city was the Municipal Building (1910-13) adjacent to City Hall, tragically built following the deaths of both White (1906) and McKim (1909) and the financial collapse of the original partnership.[12]

Later partnerships

The firm retained its name long after the deaths of founding partners White (1906), McKim (1909), and Mead (1928). The major partners became William M. Kendall and Lawrence Grant White, Stanford's son. [13]

Among the firm's final works under the name McKim, Mead & White was the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Designed primarily by partner James Kellum Smith, it opened in 1964.[14]

Smith died in 1961, and the firm was soon renamed Steinmann, Cain and White. In 1971, it became Walker O. Cain and Associates.[15]

Selected works

New York City

BuildingLocationYearFeaturesImage
Villard HousesManhattan1884
Harvard Club of New YorkManhattan1894
169 West 83rd StreetManhattan1885for David H. King, Romanesque revival
900 BroadwayManhattan1897
Former New York Life Insurance Company Building Manhattan189498White marble Renaissance palazzo-style building. MMW took over the commission upon the death of Stephen D. Hatch in 1894.[16]
Madison Square Garden IIManhattan1890second of four buildings known by this name; razed in 1925
Century ClubManhattan1891
Cable BuildingManhattan1893
West End Collegiate ChurchManhattan1892Verify Attribution
Washington Arch, Washington Square ParkManhattan1892
Metropolitan ClubManhattan1893
Prospect ParkBrooklyn1895–1900Various features including Parade Place on Lookout Hill, Peristyle, Park Circle granite fixtures, Lullwater Bridge, 1895 Maryland Monument on Lookout Hill
Morningside Heights campus, Columbia UniversityManhattan1893–1900general design and individual buildings including Low Memorial Library, Philosophy Hall, John Jay Hall, Avery Hall, Hamilton Hall
University Heights campus, New York UniversityBronx1891–1900including Hall of Fame for Great Americans 1900, now site of Bronx Community College
Harmonie ClubManhattan1905
New York Herald BuildingManhattan1895razed in 1921
Brooklyn MuseumBrooklyn1895
University Club of New YorkManhattan1899
Pennsylvania StationManhattan1904–1910above-ground portion razed in 1963
New York Public Library branchesManhattan and the Bronx1902-1914designed 11 branches including Hamilton Grange Branch 1905–1906, 115th Street Branch 1907–1908
Morgan Library & MuseumManhattan1903expanded in 1928
IRT PowerhouseManhattan1904
390 Fifth AvenueManhattan1906for the Gorham Manufacturing Company
Prison Ship Martyrs' MonumentBrooklyn1908
Knickerbocker Trust BuildingManhattan1909for the Knickerbocker Trust Company; now razed
Manhattan Municipal BuildingManhattan1909–1915
James A. Farley BuildingManhattan1911–1914designed as the architectural twin of New York City's Pennsylvania Station; annex also designed by McKim, Mead & White in 1932
998 Fifth AvenueManhattan1912
Bellevue Hospital CenterManhattan1912
Racquet and Tennis ClubManhattan1916–1918
Hotel PennsylvaniaManhattan1919
Town HallManhattan1921
110 Livingston StreetBrooklyn1926former Elks Lodge, former headquarters of New York City Department of Education
Savoy-Plaza HotelManhattan1927razed in 1965
Liggett Hall, Governors IslandManhattan1929
DeKalb Hall and Information Science CenterBrooklyn1955
North Hall at Pratt InstituteBrooklyn1957

New England and New York State

BuildingLocationYearFeaturesImage
Newport CasinoNewport, Rhode Island1880
John Howard Whittemore HouseNaugatuck, Connecticut1880s[17]
Isaac Bell HouseNewport, Rhode Island1881–1883
Cyrus McCormick summer estate, shingle-styleRichfield Springs, New York1882razed 1957
Emdalar Castle - Tickner Estate South Kingstown, Rhode Island 1883 Restored to its original condition in 2014.
Narragansett Pier CasinoNarragansett, Rhode Island1883
Salem School (Naugatuck, Connecticut)Naugatuck, Connecticut1884[17]
Wolf's Head Society, "Old Hall", Yale UniversityNew Haven, Connecticut1884
Charles J. Osborn ResidenceMamaroneck, New York1885Mamaroneck Beach and Yacht Club since 1952[18]
"Four Chimneys" MansionNew Rochelle, New York?
John F. Andrew Mansion, 32 Hereford StreetBoston, Massachusetts1886
William G. Low HouseBristol, Rhode Island1887epitome of Shingle Style architecture; razed 1962
Algonquin ClubBoston, Massachusetts1888
Johnston Gate, Harvard UniversityCambridge, Massachusetts1889
Fayerweather Hall, Amherst CollegeAmherst, Massachusetts1890
Walker Art Building, Bowdoin CollegeBrunswick, Maine1894
Whittemore Memorial LibraryNaugatuck, Connecticut1894[17]
Adams Power Plant Transformer HouseNiagara Falls, New York1895
Boston Public LibraryBoston, Massachusetts1895
Dudley Pickman House, 303 Commonwealth Avenue (Back Bay)Boston, Massachusetts1895
Reid Hall, Manhattanville CollegePurchase, New York1895
Rhode Island State HouseProvidence, Rhode Island1895–1904
Garden City HotelGarden City, New York1895burned 1899
House for Frederick Vanderbilt, "Hyde Park"Hyde Park, New York1895–1898
WoodleaBriarcliff Manor, New York1895now Sleepy Hollow Country Club
James L. Breese House "The Orchard"Southampton, New York1897-1906
RosecliffNewport, Rhode Island1898–1902
Harbor HillLong Island, New York1899–1902razed 1947
Symphony HallBoston, Massachusetts1900
Hill-Stead MuseumFarmington, Connecticut1901estate of Alfred Atmore Pope, designed with Theodate Pope Riddle
Astor CourtsRhinebeck, New York1902–1904estate of John Jacob Astor
Rockefeller Hall, Brown UniversityProvidence, Rhode Island1904now Faunce House
Naugatuck High SchoolNaugatuck, Connecticut1904Hillside Middle School since 1959
New England Trust Company BuildingBoston, Massachusetts1906
Waterbury Union StationWaterbury, Connecticut1909Renaissance Revival style featuring a clock tower modeled on the Torre del Mangia in Siena, Italy[19]
Plymouth Rock porticoPlymouth, Massachusetts1920
Foster Hall, University at Buffalo South CampusBuffalo, New York1921
Harvard Business SchoolBoston, Massachusetts1925
Ira Allen Chapel, University of VermontBurlington, Vermont1925
Olin Memorial Library, Wesleyan UniversityMiddletown, Connecticut1925
Memorial Chapel, Union CollegeSchenectady, New York1925
Lincoln Alliance BuildingRochester, New York1926
Rochester Savings BankRochester, New York1927
George Eastman HouseRochester, New Yorkc.1903Eastman hired McKim, Mead & White to design the interior of his Georgian Colonial Revival Mansion which was nearly an exact, large scale duplicate of the Robert Root House that was built by the firm in Buffalo, New York c.1894[20]
Burlington City HallBurlington, Vermont1928
Levermore Hall, Blodgett Hall, and Woodruff Hall, Adelphi UniversityGarden City, New York1929
Schenectady City HallSchenectady, New York1931–1933
The Little Red Schoolhouse, Amherst CollegeAmherst, Massachusetts1937
Ballou Hall, Tufts CollegeMedford, Massachusetts1955Renovation[21]
Housatonic Railroad Station[22]Stockbridge, Massachusetts1893English Gothic Revival style, stone
New York Central Railroad StationArdsley-on-Hudson, New York1895Shingle Style with Tudor and Romanesque Revival elements[22]
Park Lane Apartments Mount Vernon, New York 1929
The Cedars/Lord's Castle Remodel Piermont, New York 1892 "The original gable ends were stepped, the pointy "Gothick" windows were Edwardianized, the wooden porches reconstructed in stone, the tower on the west capped with a conical roof, the forest of delicate chimney pots combined and bulked up, and the reconfigured interior given heavy doses of classical columns, balusters, dadoes, fireplaces and moldings." [23][24]

New Jersey

BuildingLocationYearFeaturesImage
Florham Campus, Fairleigh Dickinson UniversityMadison and Florham Park, New Jersey1897originally "Florham," the estate of Hamilton Twombly and Florence Vanderbilt, one of many Vanderbilt houses
Orange Public LibraryOrange, New Jersey1901
St. Peter's Episcopal ChurchMorristown, New Jersey1889-1913English-medieval style parish church.
Hurstmont Morristown, New Jersey1902-3Private estate.
FitzRandolph GatePrinceton, New Jersey1905The official entrance of Princeton University
University Cottage Club, Princeton UniversityPrinceton, New Jersey1906One of the Eating clubs at Princeton University
Pennsylvania StationNewark, New Jersey1935Art Deco style[22]

Washington, D.C.

BuildingLocationYearFeaturesImage
White House, West Wing and East Wing1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW1903Renovation
Roosevelt Hall, National War CollegeFort Lesley J. McNair1903–1907
National Museum of American History1300 Constitution Avenue NW1964
Patterson Mansion15 Dupont Circle NW1903
St. John's Church, Lafayette Square1525 H Street NW1919Renovation
Pedestal, Jeanne d'Arc[25]Meridian Hill Park1922Measures about 10 feet long and 6 feet high

Other U.S. locations

BuildingLocationYearFeaturesImage
First Methodist Episcopal Church, Lovely Lane United Methodist ChurchBaltimore, Maryland1884
CramondTredyffrin Township, Pennsylvania1886
McKelvy House (formerly "Oakhurst"), Lafayette College, College HillEaston, Pennsylvania1888[26]
New York Life Insurance BuildingKansas City, Missouri1890
Open Gates, George Sealy MansionGalveston, Texas1891
Germantown Cricket ClubPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania1891
The Agricultural Building at the World Columbian ExpositionChicago, Illinois1893
Old Cabell Hall, Cocke Hall, and Rouss Hall, University of VirginiaCharlottesville, Virginia1898 approx
Savoyard CentreDetroit, Michigan1900originally State Savings Bank; National Register of Historic Places 1982
Protection of the Flag MonumentAthens, Pennsylvania1900–1902
English Building, University of Illinois at Urbana–ChampaignChampaign, Illinois1905
Carr's Hill, or University of Virginia President's HouseCharlottesville, Virginia1906
Omaha National Bank BuildingOmaha, Nebraska1906originally the New York Life Building, 1889)[27]
Girard BankPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania1908
Fayette National Bank BuildingLexington, Kentucky1914[28]
Minneapolis Institute of ArtsMinneapolis, Minnesota1915
Peabody Demonstration SchoolNashville, Tennessee1915now University School of Nashville
National McKinley Birthplace Memorial Library and MuseumNiles, Ohio1915
Butler Institute of American ArtYoungstown, Ohio1919listed on National Register of Historic Places
Cohen Memorial Hall (Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery), Vanderbilt UniversityNashville, Tennessee1928 approx
Milwaukee County CourthouseMilwaukee, Wisconsin1931
Chittenden Hall, University of VermontBurlington, Vermont1947
Dietrich Hall, now Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, University of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania1952
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, North Carolina 1929 Expansion of campus

Other countries

BuildingLocationYearFeaturesImage
Bank of Montreal Head OfficeMontreal, Quebec, Canada1901–1905additions
Bank of Montreal BuildingWinnipeg, Manitoba, Canada1913
American Academy in Rome Main BuildingRome, Italy1914
Hotel Nacional de CubaHavana, Cuba1930

Notable architects who worked for McKim, Mead & White

References

Notes

  1. See Mark Alan Hewitt, The Architect and the American Country House, 1890-1940, (New Haven, Yale Univ. Press: 1990) pages 15-67,for a discussion of their influence.
  2. Stern, Robert A. M.; Gilmartin, Gregory; Massengale, John Montague (1983). New York 1900: Metropolitan Architecture and Urbanism, 1890-1915. New York: Rizzoli. ISBN 0-8478-0511-5. OCLC 9829395.
  3. Samuel G. White, McKim Mead and White: Masterworks (New York, Rizzoli: 2003).
  4. Leland M. Roth, McKim, Mead and White, Architects, (New York, Harper & Row: 1985)
  5. See Vincent Scully, Jr. The Shingle Style and the Stick Style: architectural theory and design from Richardson to the origins of Wright (New Haven, Yale Univ. Press: 1971)
  6. William B. Rhoads, The Colonial Revival, Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, (New York, Garland Publishing: 1977) pages 594 and 942.
  7. Richard Guy Wilson, McKim, Mead and White, architects (New York, Rizzoli: 1983).
  8. Mosette Broderick, Triumvirate: McKim, Mead & White Art, Architecture, Scandal, and Class in America's Gilded Age (New York, Alfred Knopf: 2010).
  9. Leland Roth, "Three Factory Towns by McKim, Mead and White," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians Vol. 38, No. 4 (1979): 317-347.
  10. See Samuel G. White, The Houses of McKim, Mead and White (New York, Rizzoli: 1998).
  11. See Steven Parissien, Pennsylvania Station: McKim, Mead and White (London, Phaidon: 1996).
  12. A Monograph of the Works of McKim, Mead and White, (New York, Architectural Book Publishing Company: 1925).
  13. "[Mead's] widow receives all the estate of about $250,000"], New York Times (November 27, 1928); "Mrs. Olga Kilenyi Mead, widow,... bequeathed her entire estate to the trustees of Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts" in New York Times (April 23, 1936). The money was used to build the Mead Art Building, which was designed by James Kellum Smith of McKim, Mead and White.
  14. "Mission & History". National Museum of American History. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2018-02-14.
  15. Patricia McGraw Anderson (1988). The Architecture of Bowdoin College. Brunswick, Maine: Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 2015-09-09. Retrieved 2013-08-07. http://library.bowdoin.edu/arch/images/lunagallery/libraryluna.shtml Archived 2014-10-18 at the Wayback Machine
  16. Goeschel, Nancy (February 10, 1987). "Former New York Life Insurance Building" (PDF). New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  17. Blackwell, D. and The Naugatuck Historical Society 1996 "Images of Naugatuck". Arcadia Publishing
  18. Charles J. Osborn Residence
  19. Potter, Janet Greenstein (1996), Great American Railroad Stations
  20. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-07-31. Retrieved 2020-03-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  21. Tolles Jr., Bryant Franklin (1973), Gridley J.F. Bryant and the First Building at Tufts College (PDF)
  22. Potter, Janet Greenstein (1996). Great American Railroad Stations. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 94, 154, 164. ISBN 978-0471143895.
  23. "Piermont Historical Society". piermonthistorysociety.org. Retrieved 2017-10-29.
  24. "Big Old Houses: I Love This House". New York Social Diary. 2013-01-08. Retrieved 2017-10-29.
  25. Art and Archaeology. Archaeological Institute of America. 1922.
  26. "McKelvy House" on the Council of Independent Colleges Historic Campus Architecture Project website
  27. Bluffton University Digital Imagine Project
  28. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/80001513_text

Bibliography

  • Baker, Paul R. Stanny: The Gilded Life of Stanford White. New York: Free Press, 1989. ISBN 0-02-901781-5
  • Broderick, Mosette. Triumvirate: McKim, Mead & White: Art, Architecture, Scandal, and Class in America's Gilded Age New York: Knopf, 2010. ISBN 0-394-53662-2
  • McKim, Mead & White. A Monograph of the Work of McKim, Mead & White, 1879-1915. New York: Architectural Book Publishing Co., 1915-1920, 4 volumes. Reprinted as The Architecture of McKim, Mead & White in Photographs, Plans and Elevations, with an introduction by Richard Guy Wilson (New York: Dover Publications, 1990). ISBN 0486265560
  • Roth, Leland M. The Architecture of McKim, Mead & White, 1870-1920: A Building List (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities). Garland Publishing (September 1, 1978). 978-0824098506
  • Roth, Leland M. McKim, Mead and White, Architects. Harper & Row; First edition (October 1985). 978-0064301367


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